Engineering Geology

Earth materials can deform and move in response to stress. That strain can manifest as catastrophic landslides, in >10 meter fault displacements at the surface, in ground settlement, or coastal erosion.  Investigating material properties and how they respond to different stresses is therefore important for determining how and where we build.

In REALM Lab, we take a multi-scale approach to better understanding material properties and solving problems facing engineering geologists:

(1) Coseismic landslides are one of the most impactful secondary hazards of earthquakes. REALM uses field mapping, remote sensing, geotechnical testing, and models to determine how and where slope failures form (Stahl et al., 2014; Bloom et al., 2022; Singeisen et al., 2024).

(2) Rock damage and weathering control the yield strengths of Earth materials. Characterizing rock properties at hand sample, outcrop, hillslope, and regional scales is critical for understanding rates and magnitudes of processes like erosion. REALM uses in situ tests and remote sensing to quantify rock properties (Stahl and Tye, 2020; Olsen et al., 2020; Singeisen et al., 2022).

(3) Fault displacement hazard deals with the direct harm caused by faults rupturing to the surface. It also involves the secondary hazards such as increased flood hazard from regional subsidence (Delano et al., 2025). REALM conducts site-specific and regional fault displacement hazard analyses that help inform design and network planning (Daglish et al., 2025), respectively.